The opening and the title hint at a darkness to the piece, but, in truth, the story is a lot lighter than it lets on in the beginning. It reads quickly and is very fulfilling, even though there is some over economy in character development. I love the irony in a post-apocalyptic tale being highly humorous (I refer to the ending). Well worth the read.

The rest of this will contain some spoilers…

I’m not a big fan of stories starting with a line of dialogue, preferring to be set down into place before talking begins, but there was no true moment where the reader feels lost or misplaced. When it does come to the dialogue, there is a wonderful play between characters ( especially Shasty) trying to sound sophisticated but falling back on very ordinary language. The idea continues even in the narration itself, such as saying the Moles having highly sophisticated “biosensors,” dogs chained to the wall. Even the names given the characters reflect a deep sense of history and language (nice touch since Shasty seems to be drawn to a study of history but fails to see some of these meanings). Rhys (Memnar) calls to mind both Lord Rhys (again nice touch calling him Rhys Lloyd) and his attachment to Memnon. Also, the leader of the Moles is Angalu being a play on angel and angus…

Even the term rat comes into great play, showing the connection between Mole Town and the White City…both having their subterranean complexes and people being referred to as rats of some kind. The Moles, however, become more and more acceptable in that, unlike the Whitey’s use of others, the Moles are very honest.

And the end…well, who hasn’t felt like doing that to our supposed superiors…again I like how the simple vulgarity of Shasty’s last act counters the veiled sophistication of the Scholars…